Grabbed this using natural light, and thought it was the perfect chance to have a go at an Emily Soto look, she always manages to get a soft natural look while still keeping the image striking and focused on the subject, and is always putting foliage or something between the lens and the subject, which is of course a big no no but she manages to pull it off. I really recommend checking out her work at emilysoto.com, I am pretty obsessed with her at the moment. She seems to use a Mola beauty dish for pretty much everything with a bit of kicker light from a hand held speed light now and again, hmmmm 600 bucks for a metal dish, ah well better get saving again.

A couple of long exposures from Berrow Beach which is about 20 miles west of Bristol. When I got there around 5am I was the only person there and it was so peaceful. Very different story by 6 when hundreds of people came out to walk their dogs! all of which could smell the breakfast I had on me.

While I am far from any images that will go towards the final project the scouting is throwing up some images I thought were worth sharing. Be sure to subscribe to via RSS or email (in the sidebar) to stay updated as the project evolves.

I spotted this on the way out, we tired to find it that night but couldn’t and I am glad we didn’t as we did find it the next day on the way back, and as you can see from the shot below its not the kind of place you want to get stuck in the pitch black.

Just sitting on the dunes in the morning with Soph, watching the light continually paint different scenes with nobody else around was beautiful.

As we walked down the beach that morning, right at the moment we reached this large hunk of drift wood the sun seemed to burn its way through the thicker gray clouds.

We decided to hike up the the north point of the Gower beach to watch the sunset. However the eons of rock strata that are pushed up over millions of years were perfectly lit by the sun so I decided to shoot this instead.

Great weekend light hunting in Wales. Sometimes you have to get dirty to get the shot you want…and other times you have to get really dirty. This weekend ended knee deep in the Loughor Estuary which outlets to the Gower.

It was all worth it though, shots to come soon.

An amazing short film by surf photographer Mickey Smith. I came across this via Chase Javis’s Blog which is well worth checking out in it’s own right. I know I will be coming back to this film again and again whenever I am in need of galvanization.

A few nights ago I decided to capture the Clifton suspension bridge for the first time since my move to Bristol, with its lights on, inspired by the idea of getting some nostalgic shots for a good friend who is leaving Bristol to work in America until Christmas. It was about 3am as I marched up to the bridge, camera locked securely on to my tripod. Apart from the furious gusts all was going well, and I was half way through my first set of HDR captures when a police car came flying across the bridge, lights and sirens blazing. It seems that at night (and probably by day as well) a carbon fiber tripod looks a lot like an assault rifle, and the local constabulary had been informed as much by an alarmed member of the public.
Luckily the they saw the funny side of this and i managed to get some good shots.

The event last Friday was a great success, raising £50,000 for Children’s Hospice South West. Before the walk at midnight the ladies lit individual candle bags in the grandstand to spell out “memory” before listening to a local choir sing a beautiful arrangement of “Fix you” by Coldplay.
For any photo geeks the first shot is actually three shot composite to balance the extreme light near the choir and the faint light from the candles 80 meters away. The second is a single long exposure. The red smoke is actually where a group of ladies with red balloons walked in front of the camera, which I think ended up looking pretty cool.